February 2012

02/28/12

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned here that one of the season’s big trends is the straight dress style of the 1920s. With nice timing for the fall release of the remake of The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, we can expect to see a lot more of this silhouette through the year.
In keeping with clothing influenced by the Roaring Twenties, we’ll need the right footwear. One of the most popular (and enduring) styles from the era is the “spectator” or “correspondent” shoe. The famed English boot maker John Lobb claims to have created the first spectator shoe—essentially a wingtip with contrasting toe cap, heel quarter and upper—in the 1860s for the purpose of playing cricket. As cricketers’ garb was always white, the dark leather...

02/22/12

One of the best things about this time of year is the shops filling up with the new season’s clothes and accessories. Best of all for us in Southwest Florida, we don’t have to wait until we’ve stopped shoveling snow and the sidewalks unfreeze—we can love them and wear them now! The spring collections are always particularly welcome as fresh new color combinations awaken us from our winter hibernation.
That said, this year’s color trends are not for the fainthearted! With pimento, tangerine, hot pink, citron yellow and sodalite blue all vying for attention, here’s how to look current without resembling a walking paint chip chart.
Don’t be afraid of color: We’re not talking about wearing one strong hue from head to toe; even the most confident individual would...

02/14/12

Skirts and dresses feature strongly in this year’s spring/summer collections, and living in Southwest Florida makes it a breeze to wear one. The two big trends this season are fashion opposites: the flapper-style straight dress and the swishing, pleated skirt. Both of these looks provide the perfect opportunity to wear a fabulous belt.
If you fall into the “I love belts but they never look right” category, here’s how to make them work:
· If you have a long, straight torso, placing a belt at your natural waistline just draws attention to your straightness. Instead, try wearing a narrow belt directly under your bustline (likely to be the narrowest part of your torso), or if you have slender hips (frequently the case on straighter silhouettes), sling a...

02/08/12

With only a few more weeks to go before Mad Men is back on our screens at the end of March (I can’t wait!), the trend for all things retro shows no sign of slowing down. We’ve seen the stewardesses of Pan Am in their nipped-in tailored suits and cute little winged hats, and coming soon is Magic City, set in Miami in the late 1950s. (Cats-eye sunglasses and raffia purses at the ready please, ladies!)
Prada’s spring collection features a range of spectacular, quirky shoes clearly inspired by American classic cars and hotrods – complete with bullet-shaped tail-light detail and flaming heels! Even 29-year-old Jason Wu’s collection for Target, which launched this weekend, showcased very wearable pretty, feminine pieces referencing a gamine Audrey Hepburn chic.
So, the...